Shapeshifters in Joshua Brooks

It’s taken 43 years of me being alive, and much longer, but eventually someone has come up with the bright idea of daytime clubbing: running a nightclub event early enough to get the bus home after. Sure, other people have tried it, but Manchester institution Joshua Brooks seem to be the only local outfit successfully pulling it off. 

Last week they brought in 2000s house music producer The Shapeshifters, who’s hit Lola’s Theme reached no.1 in 2004, for their Daytime Disco event. The only people I know who remember The Shapeshifters rarely go out any more to the point where I stopped asking, so I threw it on Meetup. One new Manchester Nightlife attendee RSVP’d, a woman a little older than me. We both bought tickets early on, so we both committed. 

We had a good chat at Yes bar at around 4pm, then jumped over to Joshua’s. Before long, she went to put her coat in the cloakroom and didn’t come back, then left the Meetup group. 

I get it. If you were hoping it would be a group thing and it turns out not to be, I see that the situation would be uncomfortable. Whatever, I just soaked up the music and atmos. Incredible. 

 

Simon Marlin, AKA The Shapeshifters

Journaling Club / Sheffield Comic Con This Week

So. Veganuary – a month of veganism – is done. February will be a hell of a lot more interesting. 

The first full week alone has a Journaling Club at Hinterland on Wednesday (there’s a Meetup with Manc Mates) and a Comic Con in Sheffield, ran by Creed Conventions. I’ve not been to their cons before, but this time there’s Craig Charles and Chris Barrie – Lister and Rimmer from UK TV Sci Fi show Red Dwarf. I’m going to meet them. Tickets are still available. 

There are already meetups for the following week too, plus there’s a house music blog post to go up and a new blog project to begin.

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Veganuary ‘26 Review

Veganuary 2026 has concluded. The month of veganism – my second attempt in 2 years – was not quite the success I’d hoped for when I started out on the 1st of this month. 

Weight loss was one goal. I started at 80.5kg after Christmas’ excess, and after dieting – not just following the recipes but cutting back on bread and porridge too – I came down to 73.0. This loss can partly be attributed to a moment of distraction and not checking the ingredients on a pack of vegan sausages, which included my nemesis, mushrooms, which floored me in work and had me sleeping – and fasting - for days. I had them for breakfast and by 10am I had to go home. 

Furthermore, a lot of vegan pre-prepared meals aren’t even that healthy. There are a lot of red symbols indicating high fats and sugars, certainly in Aldi’s products. 

Another goal was to beat a few personal bests in chinups and dips, and running. I achieved none. I was getting there with these, but I was still nowhere near the records. Some people swear by veganism for fitness. It didn’t work for me. 

I managed a few recipes, although not as many as I’d have liked. They’ll appear here over the weeks. I find a lot of vegan recipes quite bland, and not as filling. How dedicated vegans manage, I don’t know. I uploaded one Meetup to vegan restaurant Hinterland, which went down well with a mostly new group of people in Manchester Nightlife. I’d have ran more but the weather is abysmal in northern England in January. 

I did misstep at one point, eating some cereal with almond milk. All vegan, until you take into account it was Aldi Honey Nut Cornflakes, and honey is basically bee puke, so not technically vegan. 

Once midnight passed, though…

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I’ve done Veganuary twice now. I really miss the restaurant deals in Manchester, and all the meat-based food available at cut-price, so I think it would be better to mix in more vegan meals throughout the year than do a full on vegan project. 

There are other monthly challenges to undertake. Stay tuned for that...

Parsnip Tagine

My first attempt at a tagine was this Green Roasting Tin recipe from Rukmini Iyer: Sweet Potato and Parsnip Tagine with Dates and Coriander. 

Memory difficulties always impact me on new recipes. This time I didn’t have the right sized spring onions, but that probably balanced out. I charged ahead and forgot to toast the almonds before throwing them in. Then I put the coriander in too early too. It took me an outrageous 40 mins to prep, when it should have been 10. It all worked out in the end. I’m not a massive parsnip fan, but then I’m not a massive ‘not being able to fit into my suit trousers’ fan either. 

They were the best tasting parsnips I’ve eaten, to be fair. Good medley of flavours.

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Come See The Shapeshifters in Manchester Saturday

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Who remembers Lola’s Theme from 2004? The classic house music track was a number 1 hit for The Shapeshifters, a London-based house music duo. They’re headlining on Saturday at Joshua Brooks in Manchester for Daytime Disco, on an early slot starting at 3 pm.  

Manchester Nightlife meetup group are headed down there. Just think: a good stomp with incredible house music, a great DJ and no massive taxi fare at the end of it. Absolute winner. Meeting in Yes bar next door at 3. 

Last week of Veganuary. Can’t wait for it to be over tbh.

Blu-Rays and Bars

"I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can be careless. But not men." - Vito Corleone, The Godfather. 

January, like December, is a predictably expensive month. Most of the year I try to be as efficient as possible with money, but December, well, we know how expensive that is, and January I allow myself to spend a bit in the sales. Hence, I bought a new PC and a new Blu-Ray player. A friend of mine from college days donated these:

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I’d forgotten it was that long ago when he’d got in touch. What a gesture. The other day I watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy back to back and worked out the whole time. Exhausting, but fun. Great picture quality. Still a fat bastard despite Veganuary. I’d been holding off buying this David Cronenberg box set too:

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Manchester is still battling the economic blues: not only had we lost Raft bar in Spinningfields a while back, but Banyan have also upped and left that area of Manchester. There’s still a branch in The Corn Exchange. Meetup groups like WeRoad and GetSocial used Banyan a lot over the years.

Green Peas Kachori

I really should have hammered the vegan recipes a little more this month, as was my plan for Vegaunary, a month long vegan challenge. But here we are. 

From Rukmini Iyer’s India Express: Green Peas Kachori, small parcels of spicy peas fried in a dough wrap. I trawled 3 supermarkets for chapatti flour, finding it in the big Tesco. I don’t own a potato masher – drawers are full enough. Spatula did the trick. I wasn’t supposed to dry the peas after rinsing – jumped ahead a little there. Took me an hour and a half instead of 70 mins. Not bad. 

As for the food: tasty, with a kick.

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